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jD8LLNFK81 11-27-2006 18:42:09 BC-MO--Group Home Fire, Optional:10 killed
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10 killed in group home fire in SW Missouri
By MARCUS KABEL and ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
Associated Press Writers
ANDERSON, Mo. (AP) – A fire that killed 10 people and injured two dozen more at a southwest Missouri group home for the elderly and mentally ill Monday was being treated as a crime, Gov. Matt Blunt said.
"We're not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive," he said.
"It is being treated as a suspicious fire," he said, without elaborating about potential evidence.
The blaze, reported about 1 a.m. and brought under control just before sunrise, reduced the privately run Anderson Guest House to a skeleton of cinder blocks and stunned its namesake city, a former railroad town of about 1,800 people tucked in the Ozark hills about 35 miles south of Joplin.
The home had fire alarms but no sprinklers, said Assistant Fire Marshal Greg Carrell.
One of the dead was a worker in the home and the other nine were residents, Blunt said. Authorities had not yet released the names, pending notification of relatives.
Blunt said it was too early to speculate how the fire started but promised a "very thorough investigation."
"I saw the front door blow open with fire," said neighbor Steven Spears, 47, who was watching TV and saw the blaze erupt through security cameras stationed outside his home. "I know most of them (the residents). I've talked to all of them at one time or another. It still hasn't hit me."
The home is operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. Robert Joseph Dupont, the ministries' executive director, issued a statement expressing sadness and saying all displaced residents were being cared for with the help of local agencies.
"This is a very tragic situation that has saddened all of us at Joplin River of Life Ministries," he said.
At the company's offices in Joplin, six Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators milled outside the ministries' headquarters while others interviewed Dupont and group home residents, including some survivors, the patrol said. A ministries employee said Dupont was unavailable for further comment.
Dupont, 61, was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2003 for his part in a scheme to bilk the federal Medicare program by steering patients from group homes he owned – including the one in Anderson – to hand-picked doctors. Those doctors, in exchange, falsely certified that the patients needed home health services from two companies Dupont owned or co-owned, according to federal records.
Dupont was sentenced to 21 months behind bars at the Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas, followed by three years of supervised release. Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Dupont's efforts to persuade the court to vacate that conviction.
The dead ranged in age from early 20s to the elderly. Eighteen people were taken to area hospitals and six were treated at the scene. The home had 32 residents and two employees inside when the fire was reported around 1 a.m., Highway Patrol spokesman Kent Casey said.
One person was in serious condition at a Joplin hospital. All the other survivors who went to area hospitals were either in good or fair condition or had been treated and released.
Officials were refusing to say how the victims died or whether they had warning. Blunt also said authorities were still investigating whether the home's residents were in bed when the fire began.
The patrol said it doesn't expect to release the names of victims until Tuesday because relatives of two victims haven't yet been notified.
Asked if two staff members were enough to look after 32 residents, Blunt said that was up to state health officials.
"Again, it was late at night," he said. "That would impact to some degree the amount of care that is necessary."
State regulations require that type of facility to have at least one staff member for every 25 residents during the overnight hours.
There also was no information to suggest any of the victims were originally from Anderson, a town of mostly small businesses and manufacturing and whose residents commute roughly an hour south to Wal-Mart headquarters in northwest Arkansas or the businesses that have sprung up around the retailing giant.
Authorities were trying to determine if the blaze was linked to a smaller fire at the facility Saturday morning, Carrell said. No one was injured in the first fire, which was still under investigation when the second blaze began.
Inspectors from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, which licenses the facility, found some deficiencies at the home in March but none related to fire safety, agency spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said.
"This is a devastating situation and we express our sympathy to the families of those who were killed or injured in the fire," Gonder said in a news release.
In October 2003, another group home operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries was cited for fire-code violations, including intentionally disabling fire equipment, records show.
The 12-bedroom residential facility in Joplin, known as Guest House II, "failed to repair a malfunctioning fire alarm system for at least two weeks and did not implement a fire watch during that time," according to an Oct. 23, 2003, memo by the health department's deputy director for long-term care. A copy of the document was provided to The Associated Press by the Missourian Coalition for Quality Care, a Jefferson City-based nursing home industry watchdog.
Employees also "placed a pencil in the reset switch to prevent fire alarm activation and failed to reset two pull stations," the health department memo said.
A state investigation report shows no one took responsibility for the broken fire alarm. The administrator claimed not to have been notified about it; the facility manager claimed to have reported it three or four weeks earlier to the maintenance person; and the maintenance person claimed to have been notified only on the day of the inspection.
Gonder said that facility closed on July 15, 2004. But Joplin River of Life Ministries continues to operate three group homes in Joplin – one of which a resident Monday identified as Guest House II – and a fourth in nearby Carl Junction.
State inspectors also cited a ministries' group home in Carthage in October 2003 for failing to obtain a required annual fire inspection and being unable to ensure that staff members could unlock rooms from the outside in case of emergency, the Joplin Globe reported.
Records filed with the Missouri secretary of state show that Dupont and his wife, LaVerne, own the property and buildings where the Joplin group homes sit, with River of Life Ministries the licensed operator. Robert Dupont was listed as a ministries' officer in the group's 2002 articles of incorporation.
As a convicted felon, he is not allowed under state law to hold such a position with a long-term care facility, Gonder said.
His wife, however, remains listed – twice – as an officer of River of Life Ministries in the group's 2006 secretary of state's filing.
The Anderson fire was believed to be the deadliest in Missouri since a blaze in 1979 killed 25 at care home in Farmington. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the nation's deadliest fire in a facility for older adults since 1950 was at the Katie Jane Nursing Home in Warrenton, where 72 people were killed in 1957.
"It's terrible," Casey said. "I have never been involved in a fire in which 10 people lost their lives."
The home is a residential care center licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The facility also has a license from the state Department of Mental Health that allowed mentally ill residents to live at the home and receive treatment elsewhere.
The facility was cited in March for grease buildup in the kitchen, uncovered fluorescent light fixtures, allowing meat to thaw on the kitchen counter instead of in a refrigerator, allowing a resident to take more than the prescribed dose of an inhaler and not requesting criminal background checks as quickly as required by law for new two new employees. All the deficiencies were corrected within three weeks, according to the health department.
In 2003, a patient suffering from dementia and multiple sclerosis set fire to her bed and burned down the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford, Conn., killing 16 residents. Six months later, in September 2003, a fire killed 15 patients in Nashville, Tenn. Neither nursing home had an automatic sprinkler system, and the fires led to a push for mandatory sprinkler systems in nursing homes.
Recently, the federal agency that oversees the safety of nursing homes asked for comments about a proposal to require all nursing homes to have comprehensive sprinkler systems. The rule would not address group homes like the one in Anderson because such facilities are not subject to the same federal oversight.
––––
Associated Press writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City contributed to this report.
Associated Press Writer
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10 killed in group home fire in SW Missouri
AP Photos
By MARCUS KABEL
Associated Press Writer
ANDERSON, Mo. (AP) – The elderly and mentally ill residents of a group home destroyed by fire were familiar faces to many people in this small Ozarks town. Some routinely slurped ice cream at the nearby Dairy Queen, while others ventured across the road to pet the office cat at the animal clinic.
The overnight blaze that killed 10 people and injured two dozen others at the home Monday also took part of their community, Anderson residents said.
"It's like losing children," said Joy Davis, 74, who lives near the Anderson volunteer fire department about a mile from the group home and heard fire trucks race out around 1 a.m. Monday. "They were innocents."
The blaze – among the deadliest in Missouri's history – was being treated as a crime, Gov. Matt Blunt told reporters at a news conference in Anderson. He offered no evidence, but promised a "very thorough investigation."
"We're not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive," he said. "It is being treated as a suspicious fire."
The blaze, brought under control just before sunrise, reduced the privately run Anderson Guest House to rubble and shook its namesake city, a former railroad town of about 1,800 people tucked in the Ozark hills south of Joplin.
"I knew them as customers," said Carol Corcoran, 64, the owner of a nearby Dairy Queen who is married to Anderson's mayor. "It's sad. The town is sad."
The home had fire alarms but no sprinklers, said Assistant Fire Marshal Greg Carrell.
The dead ranged in age from early 20s to the elderly. One of the victims was a worker in the home and the other nine were residents, Blunt said. Authorities were expected to identify the victims Tuesday.
"I saw the front door blow open with fire," said neighbor Steven Spears, 47, who was watching TV and saw the blaze erupt through security cameras stationed outside his home. "I know most of them (the residents). I've talked to all of them at one time or another. It still hasn't hit me."
The home is operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. Executive Director Robert Dupont issued a statement expressing sadness and saying all displaced residents were being cared for with the help of local agencies.
"This is a very tragic situation that has saddened all of us at Joplin River of Life Ministries," he said.
Dupont, 61, was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2003 for his part in a scheme to bilk the federal Medicare program by steering patients from group homes he owned – including the one in Anderson – to hand-picked doctors. Those doctors, in exchange, falsely certified that the patients needed home health services from two companies Dupont owned or co-owned, according to federal records.
Dupont was sentenced to 21 months behind bars at the Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas, followed by three years of supervised release. Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Dupont's efforts to persuade the court to vacate that conviction.
At the company's offices in Joplin Monday afternoon, Missouri State Highway Patrol investigators interviewed Dupont and group home residents, including some survivors.
Eighteen people were taken to area hospitals and six were treated at the scene. The home had 32 residents and two employees inside when the fire was reported around 1 a.m., Highway Patrol spokesman Kent Casey said.
One person was in serious condition at a Joplin hospital Monday evening. All of the other survivors who went to area hospitals were either in good or fair condition or had been treated and released.
Officials refused to say how the victims died or whether they had warning. Blunt also said authorities were still investigating whether the home's residents were in bed when the fire began.
There also was no information to suggest any of the victims were originally from Anderson, a town of mostly small businesses and manufacturing and whose residents commute roughly an hour south to Wal-Mart headquarters in northwest Arkansas or the businesses that have sprung up around the retailing giant.
Authorities were trying to determine if the blaze was linked to a smaller fire at the facility Saturday morning, Carrell said. No one was injured in that blaze, which was still under investigation when the second fire began.
In October 2003, another group home operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries was cited for fire-code violations, including intentionally disabling fire equipment, records show.
The 12-bedroom residential facility, known as Guesthouse II, "failed to repair a malfunctioning fire alarm system for at least two weeks and did not implement a fire watch during that time," according to a copy of the violation provided by the Missourian Coalition for Quality Care, a Jefferson City-based nursing home industry watchdog.
Employees also "placed a pencil in the reset switch to prevent fire alarm activation and failed to reset two pull stations," state investigators found.
The Anderson fire was believed to be the deadliest in Missouri since a blaze in 1979 killed 25 at care home in Farmington. According to the National Fire Protection Association, the nation's deadliest fire in a facility for older adults since 1950 was at the Katie Jane Nursing Home in Warrenton, where 72 people were killed in 1957.
"It's terrible," Casey said. "I have never been involved in a fire in which 10 people lost their lives."
The home is a residential care center licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The facility also has a license from the state Department of Mental Health that allowed mentally ill residents to live at the home and receive treatment elsewhere.
The facility was cited in March for grease buildup in the kitchen, uncovered fluorescent light fixtures, allowing meat to thaw on the kitchen counter instead of in a refrigerator, allowing a resident to take more than the prescribed dose of an inhaler and not requesting criminal background checks as quickly as required by law for new two new employees. All of the deficiencies were corrected within three weeks, according to the health department.
State inspectors also cited a ministries' group home in Carthage in October 2003 for failing to obtain a required annual fire inspection and being unable to ensure that staff members could unlock rooms from the outside in case of emergency, the Joplin Globe reported.
Records filed with the Missouri secretary of state show that Dupont and his wife LaVerne own the property and buildings where the Joplin group homes sit, with River of Life Ministries the licensed operator. Robert Dupont was listed as a ministries' officer in the group's 2002 articles of incorporation.
As a convicted felon, he is not allowed under state law to hold such a position with a long-term care facility, Gonder said.
His wife, however, remains listed – twice – as an officer of River of Life Ministries in the group's 2006 secretary of state's filing.
In 2003, a patient suffering from dementia and multiple sclerosis set fire to her bed and burned down the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford, Conn., killing 16 residents. Six months later, in September 2003, a fire killed 15 patients in Nashville, Tenn. Neither nursing home had an automatic sprinkler system, and the fires led to a push for mandatory sprinkler systems in nursing homes.
Recently, the federal agency that oversees the safety of nursing homes asked for comments about a proposal to require all nursing homes to have comprehensive sprinkler systems. The rule would not address group homes like the one in Anderson because such facilities are not subject to the same federal oversight.
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Associated Press writer Alan Scher Zagier in Joplin contributed to this report.
Associated Press Writer
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Doc: 00289228 DB: research–d–2006–4 Date: Mon Nov 27 19:12:29 2006
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Deadly group home blaze could lead to more mandatory sprinklers
By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH
Associated Press Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Advocates of automatic sprinklers for nursing and group homes pointed to Monday's deadly blaze at an Anderson group home as a grim reminder of why the systems should be standard equipment in long-term care facilities.
Ten people died and at least 18 were sent to hospitals early Monday after a fire broke out at the Anderson Guest House, a care home for the elderly and mentally ill. The home had smoke alarms but no sprinklers.
"You can't prevent fires from happening at all times," said Susan Feeney, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing homes. "However, having automatic sprinkler systems and other fire safety devices can save lives, which is critically important for very vulnerable patient populations, including the frail, elderly and disabled."
It's unclear how Monday's victims died, either by burns or smoke inhalation, or whether they were adequately warned by smoke alarms.
In Missouri, only certain types of long-term care facilities are required to have comprehensive sprinkler systems and only in certain circumstances, such as those that house residents on a second floor. The one-story Anderson Guest House was built before 1980 and was not required to have sprinklers.
"We'll definitely be looking to see what the investigation finds and looking at what changes might be needed and then certainly we'll see whether any of our current regulations were violated," said Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services. "The investigation should yield information about what happened, maybe about how the response happened. We'll be looking at all of that."
About 80 percent of nursing homes have comprehensive automatic sprinkler systems, according to a January survey of American Health Care Association members. Gonder said the survey did not include group homes, which often face less-stringent requirements by the states that license them.
The association began pushing for mandatory sprinklers for all nursing homes after deadly blazes in facilities in Connecticut in Tennessee.
In February 2003, a patient suffering from dementia and multiple sclerosis set fire to her bed and burned down the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford, Conn., killing 16 residents. Six months later, in September 2003, a fire killed 15 patients in Nashville, Tenn. Neither nursing home had an automatic sprinkler system.
Recently, the federal agency that oversees the safety of nursing homes issued a proposed regulation calling for all nursing facilities to have comprehensive sprinkler systems. The agency has asked for comments about how much time an estimated 2,500 older facilities without sprinklers should have to comply with its proposed rule.
Currently, federal regulations require that newly constructed nursing homes or those undergoing major renovations to include sprinkler systems. But states are free to enact more-stringent requirements. Fourteen now require nursing homes to have sprinkler systems to operate, according to the American Health Care Association.
"It is most certain this will happen," Feeney said of the regulation.
But Feeney noted the proposed regulation would not affect group homes, which are not subject to the same federal oversight.
Still, she said the deadly Missouri blaze could lead to a push for individual states to toughen their fire-safety requirements governing group homes.
Evvie Munley, senior policy analyst for the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, said her group has long supported comprehensive sprinkler systems for nursing homes as long as the facilities are given adequate money and time to meet the requirement. She noted some owners may choose to build new facilities rather than retrofit older buildings.
And she said there could be support for requiring other types of long-term care facilities to add sprinkler systems.
"I think no one is going to oppose the idea of sprinklers for long-term care facilities with vulnerable populations, but the same considerations would apply – resources and a phase in to allow people to contract for this and acquire it," Munley said. "No one would oppose sprinklering for facilities with vulnerable populations."
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AP Newsbreak: Group home owner cited repeatedly for fire safety, resident violence
By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The operator of a chain of group homes for the mentally ill had a history of fire safety violations before a recent fire killed 10 people at one of the facilities, according to inspection records obtained by The Associated Press.
The residential care facilities owned by Robert and LaVerne DuPont had been cited for broken fire alarm systems and exit signs, the lack of an emergency call system for some residents and the failure to conduct a fire inspection, according to records spanning almost a decade.
Inspectors also found cases of resident-on-resident abuse, urine stored in a refrigerator and an apparent suicide not reported to doctors. An employee in Joplin, who had served prison time for a burglary and theft, hit a group home resident and was accused of sexually assaulting three others.
Another employee at the Anderson Guest House, which burned Nov. 27, was fired last year after leaving work to buy alcohol, returning to drink it with some residents and then getting into a fight with them.
The DuPonts denied in separate telephone interviews Friday that their homes had any abnormal problems with violence and described the fire safety citations as minor incidents.
"Our facilities are nice for what we get paid to do," said LaVerne DuPont, the executive director of Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc., which operates the buildings owned by her and her husband.
Robert DuPont said he now is on leave from his paid position helping in the operations following media reports revealing he had been barred from operating long-term care facilities because of a 2003 federal conviction in a Medicare fraud scheme.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services provided thousands of pages of licensing, inspection and complaint documents involving six facilities owned by the DuPonts under an open-records law request by The Associated Press.
It was not possible Friday to compare the frequency of fire safety citations and violent incidents at the DuPonts' homes to those elsewhere, because the health department did not have statewide statistics, said Terry Walkenhorst, chief of the department's quality assurance unit that reviews the work of inspectors.
The inspection reports show the Anderson Guest House was cited in January 2000 for failing to have done an annual fire inspection. It subsequently passed a fire inspection.
Two facilities in Joplin and one in Carl Junction all were cited for unspecified fire safety violations in 1998.
The next year, Guest House II in Joplin was cited for lacking a complete fire alarm system and having two nonfunctioning smoke detectors. Robert DuPont replied in a May 1999 letter to the state Division of Aging that he would install a fire alarm system "under protest" because of differing interpretations of state regulations.
He said Friday that he didn't recall the 1999 incident.
In January 2000, Guest House II was cited for failing to have an emergency call system for second-floor residents. The facility responded by placing cowbells in each bedroom and bathroom.
Inspectors in March 2001 said the Carl Junction Guest House had failed to provide a fire alarm system or test smoke detectors. In June 2004, the same facility was cited for failing to do monthly fire drills and checks of its fire alarms and extinguishers.
Guest Houses I, II and III in Joplin all were cited for inoperable emergency exit signs in 2002. In 2003, inspectors said employees and administrators at Guest House II had failed for two weeks to repair a malfunctioning fire alarm system, then cast blame on each other.
LaVerne DuPont on Friday attributed the 2003 citation to an employee who failed to report the alarm was not working.
"Evidently we had some" fire safety problems, Robert DuPont said Friday after hearing a recitation of the citations, "but I never knew of that being any kind of big issue."
He added: "I think that they were definitely just minor things."
State Fire Marshal Randy Cole said it's not too unusual for businesses to have broken bulbs in emergency exit signs. But problems with fire alarm systems are more rare – and more serious, said Cole, whose agency was not responsible for inspecting the burned Anderson facility.
"When our fire safety inspectors find issues such as this, that are viewed as potential life safety issues, those issues are immediately brought to the attention of the agency we are doing the inspection for," Cole said.
Walkenhorst said health inspectors would be more concerned about a serious, systemic fire safety problem if a single facility had multiple violations in a single year. As it was, she said, the DuPonts' violations occurred over several years at several facilities.
The DuPonts said they always fixed any problems found by inspectors. But state records show it sometimes took two or more follow-up visits before inspectors were satisfied.
Shortly after Joplin River of Life Ministries took over a Carthage group home in 2003, inspectors cited 70 pages of violations, including several fire safety issues inherited from the previous owners. The facility closed later that year.
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Associated Press Writers Kelly Wiese and Alan Scher Zagier contributed to this report.
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AP NewsBreak: Burned home had affiliates placed on probation
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By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – The operators of a group home destroyed in a fatal fire recently were threatened with the loss of their state license to serve the mentally ill at two affiliated homes after inspectors raised serious concerns about the health and safety of their residents, The Associated Press has learned.
Inspectors cited repeated errors and confusion in providing medication to residents, poor hygiene, numerous communication lapses between administrators and staff and an exposed electrical wire hanging from a building, according to Department of Mental Health documents provided to The Associated Press under an open-records request.
To avoid closing a facility, Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. entered into a consent agreement in September with the state allowing it to operate under probation until next April, so long as it proves the problems are being corrected.
The probation status applies to the Joplin Guest House III and Carl Junction Guest House.
Mental health records noted less serious patient care citations at the organization's Anderson Guest House, where an early Monday fire killed nine of the 32 residents and one of the two staff members on duty.
State investigators have ruled out arson while pointing to improper electrical wiring in the attic as a potential cause, though they have not officially determined what sparked the fire.
The problems at the Joplin and Carl Junction homes for the mentally ill and disabled were first noted during a March licensure review. They persisted during follow-up visits in May and June. And they worsened during an August follow up at the Joplin facility, leading to the threatened loss of state licensure for that facility.
The deficiencies at the Joplin home in particular "raise serious concerns about the health, safety and welfare of individuals residing at Guest House III," the Mental Health Department wrote in a Sept. 7 letter to Laverne Dupont, listed on other documents as the executive director of Joplin River of Life Ministries.
No one immediately returned a telephone message left Friday by the AP at Joplin River of Life Ministries.
Mental Health Department spokesman Bob Bax said Friday that agency inspectors were sent to all homes run by Joplin River of Life Ministries following the Anderson fire. A department briefing on the inspection results scheduled for Friday was postponed because of heavy snow across Missouri.
"The probation status requires more frequent monitoring," Bax said, and "if the homes cannot correct those deficiencies, they lose their license."
Another of the entity's facilities – Joplin Guest House II – closed in July 2004, nine months after state health department inspectors cited it for various violations, including failure to repair a malfunctioning fire alarm.
The exposed wiring cited this August at Joplin Guest House III was hanging above an exhaust fan that was not working. Staff told mental health inspectors the wire was not hot, but inspectors noted it needed to be removed.
The most pressing problem cited at the Joplin and Carl Junction facilities was the staff's failure to give residents their medication or to properly document whether they had done so.
In one case, investigators noted that a patient's chart said the required dose of a cholesterol drug was not given because the medication was missing. They determined the medication had been taken to an administration office, but the house staff apparently never realized that nor requested it for the resident, the investigative report said.
In another case, a resident was observed taking medication unsupervised while on the front steps of the Joplin home. That resident told investigators he had been threatened with being sent elsewhere if he didn't use the sole physician chosen by the home's directors.
Laverne Dupont's husband, Robert Dupont, was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2003 for his part in a scheme to bilk the federal Medicare program by steering patients from group homes he owned – including the one in Anderson – to hand-picked doctors. Those doctors, in exchange, falsely certified that the patients needed home health services from two companies Dupont owned or co-owned, according to federal records.
Dupont was sentenced to 21 months at the Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas, followed by three years of supervised release. Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Dupont's efforts to persuade the court to vacate that conviction.
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AP NewsBreak: Group homes had 1,500 fire violations
By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri's residential care facilities have been hit with more than 1,500 fire safety violations in the past four years, with state inspectors finding problems year after year at many of those homes.
About two-thirds of the state's roughly 635 licensed residential care facilities had been cited for at least one fire safety violation from 2003 through mid-December 2006, according to an Associated Press analysis of inspection citations provided by the Department of Health and Senior Services.
The AP requested the database figures under the state's open records law following a Nov. 27 fire that killed 11 people at the Anderson Guest House for the mentally ill and disabled. State regulators have since shut down all four facilities run by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc.
The Anderson facility had been cited for failing to conduct an annual fire inspection in 2000, but had not been cited for fire problems in more recent years. The three other facilities run by the same company all had received fire safety citations since 2003.
Since the fire, the departments of health and mental health have recommended various ways to strengthen the state's fire safety regulations for such group homes, including a sprinkler system mandate that was quickly embraced by Gov. Matt Blunt. More than half of the state's group homes currently lack sprinkler systems, including the Anderson facility that burned.
Gov. Matt Blunt's administration expressed concern about the magnitude of fire safety violations revealed by the AP's request. Although it enters inspections citations into a database, the health department had not previously tallied the number of deficiencies cited on a statewide bases.
"The number of violations in the last several years is very alarming," Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Robinson said Friday upon reviewing a summary of the citations. "When there's a violation of the fire regulations or codes, that's a missed opportunity of prevention. It's a missed opportunity to save a life."
Health department spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said the agency now is conducting its own analysis of recent fire safety citations. The topic will be part of a department staff meeting next week on how it can improve its oversight of health and safety issues at long-term care facilities, she said.
State inspectors check a wide variety of things, from a facility's fire safety to its patient care and food preparation. When problems are noted, facilities are required to correct them before a follow-up inspection. Facilities cannot renew their regular operating licenses as long as troubles linger, though they often are granted temporary permits.
More than half of the Missouri facilities cited for fire safety problems were repeat offenders, meaning they had citations in multiple years or in follow-up inspections during the same year.
State Sen. Jack Goodman, who represents the Anderson area, plans to sponsor legislation enhancing the state's oversight of long-term care facilities. Told Friday of the number of fire safety violations, Goodman responded: "Wow!"
"It's possible that high numbers of first-time offenses means the state's doing a good job, but if we're seeing repeat violations without any consequences, I'm very concerned about that," said Goodman, R-Mount Vernon.
Missouri's fire safety violations were both major and minor. Among the more trivial: failure to keep certain labels on fire extinguishers. Among the potentially major: failure to have a complete fire alarm system.
The state has 13 categories of fire safety violations, each with subcategories detailing the specific problems. Over the past four years, group homes were most commonly cited for violations involving fire drill requirements, fire alarm systems and "protection from hazards," which can include fire-and-smoke deterrent construction.
There are 13 subcategories of fire alarm violations alone, ranging from the lack of a complete alarm system to failing to test the batteries in smoke detectors at least monthly.
The state fire marshal's office has listed faulty electrical wiring in the attic as a possible cause for the Anderson fire. But electrical wiring is not specifically categorized under the health department's fire safety regulations.
Comparing Missouri's fire safety violations at group homes to those in other states is difficult. Unlike for nursing homes, were residents received skilled medical care, the federal government does not dictate standards for group homes. In fact, what's considered a residential care facility varies widely from state-to-state.
The National Fire Protection Association, which publishes model safety rules, has opened its own investigation into the Anderson fire. But the association does not track the number of fire safety violations issued to such facilities in each state, nor is it aware of any group that does, said Robert Solomon, assistant vice president for building and life safety codes at the suburban Boston-based association.
Fire safety conditions sometimes vary day to day, he said, depending on burnt out bulbs in exit signs and renovations that might disrupt sprinkler systems.
"I could go into a hotel or office building or apartment building or movie theater and at any given time I might find some variation of these types of things" cited at Missouri group homes, Solomon said. "In general, there's a greater concern if there are repeat violations that rise above the bulb's burned out or the tag is missing" on a fire extinguisher.
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AP NewsBreak: Dupont claims role in operating burned group home
By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A federal felon barred from running long-term care facilities acknowledged Wednesday that he nonetheless has been paid to help operate several group homes for the mentally ill, including one recently destroyed in a fatal fire.
Robert Dupont said his continued involvement with the Anderson Guest House and other group homes should have been obvious to the state inspectors with whom he interacted. But officials in the state health and mental health departments insisted Wednesday they had no idea Dupont had any operational role when they granted licenses to his facilities.
Nine of the 32 residents and one of two staff members were killed in a Nov. 27 fire at the Anderson Guest House. The land and building are owned by Dupont, while the business is owned by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc., which Dupont helped create in 2002.
The next year, Dupont was convicted in a federal Medicare fraud scheme and removed himself as an officer of Joplin River of Life Ministries.
State law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony involving a health care facility from being an "operator" or "principal" in a long-term care facility. Dupont also is barred by federal law from participating in the Medicare or Medicaid health care programs for the poor, disabled and elderly.
Dupont's wife, Laverne, now serves as executive director of Joplin River or Life Ministries.
"I assist with the total operations," Dupont, 62, of Joplin, said in a telephone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. Dupont said he is paid to help operate Joplin River of Life Ministries, though he doesn't hold any particular title.
"I have operated these facilities all over the state for 20 years," Dupont added. "I think it's legitimate that I would be there assisting in the operation of these facilities, and I've never been questioned by any of the agencies on what my role was."
But his role is being questioned now.
The state Department of Health and Senior Services, the Department of Mental Health and Attorney General Jay Nixon all are investigating Dupont's involvement with the group homes. The Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also could open an investigation, though it will neither confirm nor deny doing so.
If it's determined Dupont was an operator of the facilities, they could lose their licenses and be forced to return Medicaid payments and potentially face civil fines.
Health department spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said Dupont was not listed "as being in any way involved in the operation of any facilities" in the agency's licensing documents.
"We had no evidence to suggest that Mr. Dupont was actively involved in operating the Anderson Guest House or any other facility," said Gonder, adding that Dupont's new public statements are being treated as evidence in the investigation.
Mental health department spokesman Bob Bax similarly said Dupont was not listed as either an employee or principal in any licensing documents since 2002. Dupont's fraud conviction bars him from having contact with anyone receiving services through the mental health department, Bax said.
Dupont said it's nonsense for state officials to claim they had no knowledge of his renewed involvement with Joplin River of Life Ministries after he was released from prison.
"I didn't run and hide in the other room when I seen an inspector coming," Dupont said. "In fact, I have been quite involved with some of the inspections that have gone on."
Records provided Wednesday to the AP by the state Department of Social Services, which oversees Missouri's Medicaid program, show Joplin River of Life Ministries was paid $626,823 over the past three years by Medicaid to provide personal care services to residents at four southwest Missouri facilities – two in Joplin and one each in Anderson and Carl Junction.
The Anderson facility was the leading Medicaid recipient – getting $220,815 from 2004 until roughly the time it burned down.
Dupont said the direct Medicaid payments amount to 15 percent to 20 percent of the income for Joplin River of Life Ministries. But it also receives additional Medicaid money indirectly, because some residents receive Medicaid grants that they use to help pay for their room and board, he said.
Dupont said he was frustrated that the fire has focused attention on his troubles instead of how he has tried to care for the mentally ill who are misunderstood and discriminated against.
"All of the sudden a tragedy happens and it's all because there was this bad felon down there doing it – it's ridiculous," Dupont said. "They want to make me look like I'm the dog – that's not a true statement, I'm not."
No one has been charged with a crime in the Anderson fire, which investigators say may have been started by faulty wiring. An exact cause may never be known, they say, because all evidence was likely lost in the blaze. Dupont has expressed skepticism that electrical wiring was to blame, saying it's more likely that a minor mattress fire two days earlier at the facility left smoldering embers in the home's attic.
Dupont was named Tuesday as a defendant in the first civil lawsuit stemming from the fire. The parents and wife of 19-year-old staff member Glen Taff filed a wrongful death lawsuit in McDonald County court, alleging that Dupont and River of Life Ministries failed to fix faulty wiring and install a sprinkler system.
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AP Exclusive: Regulators wanted to deny license to group home
By DAVID A. LIEB
Associated Press Writer
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Several months before a fatal fire destroyed a southwest Missouri group home, some state regulators sought to strip its license because of concerns the operator had failed to pay taxes and faced potential financial insolvency, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Instead of denying licenses to Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc., the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services chose to grant a series of temporary operating permits that allowed its homes for the mentally ill and disabled to remain open.
One of those facilities, the Anderson Guest House, was gutted by a Nov. 27 fire that killed 10 people and injured two dozen others. Investigators have not pinpointed an exact cause but have said improper wiring in an attic may have been to blame.
Shortly before the home's operating license expired Jan. 22, the health department issued the Anderson facility a temporary three-month permit to stay open, which later was extended several times. The department did the same for two other River of Life facilities in Joplin.
Records obtained by the AP show regulators met Jan. 17 in the office of department legal counsel Jane Drummond – now the department director – to discuss the reasons why Joplin River of Life Ministries had received only temporary permits.
In a Jan. 24 e-mail to Drummond referencing the prior meeting, the department's long-term care program manager, Bill Toenies, said he and long-term care section director Debra Cheshier "would like to proceed with application denials" for Anderson Guest House and the two Joplin facilities.
The e-mail notes that a fourth facility run by River of Life Ministries in Carl Junction recently got a two-year license renewal. But it implies that was an administrative mistake.
"Despite the problem with failure to pay payroll taxes to the IRS (by Joplin River of Life Ministries), somehow this application was approved last fall and it was given a regular license with an expiration date of 11/3/07," the health department e-mail said.
Officials at Joplin River of Life Ministries did not immediately return a telephone message Tuesday. No one answered the phone at the home of Ro+bert and LaVerne DuPont, who own the facilities. LaVerne DuPont also serves as the ministries' executive director.
Robert DuPont has acknowledged being paid to help operate Joplin River of Life Ministries, though he was barred from serving as a long-term care home operator because of a 2003 conviction in a Medicare fraud scheme.
The departments of health and mental health and Attorney General Jay Nixon are investigating Robert DuPont's role. Gov. Matt Blunt on Tuesday urged "the strongest possible licensure actions" against Joplin River of Life Ministries, as well as criminal and civil charges against DuPont if he is found to have committed fraud or violated state law.
"I am outraged at the growing evidence that Robert DuPont, a convicted felon, was illegally involved in the operations of Anderson Guest House and three other facilities," Blunt said in a written statement.
Blunt spokesman Brian Hauswirth said later Tuesday that the departments of health and mental health both had found paperwork indicating that Robert DuPont was present in post-inspection exit interviews with state inspectors – a strong indicator that he had remained involved in the operation of the facilities.
The internal health department e-mail was contained in about 3,300 pages of documents provided to The Associated Press under a state open-records law request.
Department spokeswoman Nanci Gonder said Tuesday that neither Drummond nor any of the other employees mentioned in the e-mail could comment further because the department considered the e-mail protected under attorney-client privilege and had not intended to release it.
Gonder also declined to elaborate about the facilities' failure to pay federal taxes or whether that problem had been resolved. But she acknowledged the department "had some concerns related to the financial solvency" of Joplin River of Life Ministries' facilities.
"The department has the authority to deny licensure of a long-term care facility based on the financial capacity to operate the facility," Gonder said. "However, based on the information the department had, there was not enough information to deny them a license."
When examining a facility's solvency and its ability to meet payroll, the department can look at balance sheets, profit-loss statements, tax returns, outstanding bills, liens and impending actions by creditors.
Temporary permits also can be issued instead of regular licenses because of health and safety violations cited by inspectors or omissions on applications.
Records show that the facilities owned by the DuPonts frequently were given temporary permits before obtaining regular two-year licenses – sometimes until additional financial information could be provided and sometimes while they corrected inspection problems.
For example, when the Anderson facility came up for licensure in January 2004, it had to receive a series of six temporary permits before finally regaining full licensure in July 2005. By then, however, only six months remained before the facility had to start the two-year licensure process all over again.
Other records examined by the AP have shown a history of fire safety violations and violent incidents at homes run by the DuPonts, though the health department did not have data showing whether those problems were greater or lesser than at other residential care facilities.
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Anderson fire ranks among Missouri's deadliest
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The fire that killed 10 people at a group home for the elderly and mentally ill in Anderson, Mo., ranks among the deadliest blazes in Missouri history.
Other deadly fires in Missouri over the years:
–Feb. 17, 1957: Katie Jane Nursing Home in Warrenton, 72 dead – the deadliest fire in U.S. facilities for older adults since 1950.
–March 9, 1914: Missouri Athletic Club & Bank building in St. Louis, 37 dead.
–April 2, 1979: Wayside Inn board and care home in Farmington, 25 dead.
–May 8, 1930: Armour meat processing plant gas explosion in St. Joseph, 19 dead.
–July 30, 1956: Reagan Nursing Home in Puxico, 12 dead.
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Source: National Fire Protection Association.
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SUMMARY BOX: 10 killed in group home fire in SW Missouri
By The Associated Press
DEADLY FIRE: Ten people were killed and 24 injured in a fire that engulfed a southwest Missouri group home for the elderly and mentally ill. One of the dead was a worker in the home and the other nine were residents.
THE HOME: The Anderson Guest House is operated by Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. The residential care center is licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. It also has a license from the state Department of Mental Health that allowed mentally ill residents to live at the home and receive treatment elsewhere.
THE INVESTIGATION: The fire was being treated as suspicious, but investigators did not yet know how it started or whether it was linked to a smaller fire at the home Saturday morning.